Beautiful Mountain is an isolated peak in far northwest New Mexico on the Navajo Indian Reservation, northeast of the town of Sanostee, not more than a couple miles east of the New Mexico-Arizona boundary. The "mountain" is an outlier peak grouped in with the Chuska Range, which runs mostly in Arizona (its range highpoint is Roof Butte just across the Arizona line). Although a nice mountain, Beautiful Mountain wouldn't attract itself much attention save for the fact it is the highest point in the county. It has a nice shape, a noticeable pointed summit surrounded by bands of cliffs. The land up this way is very lovely, high desert with rocky volcanic monoliths poking up out of the sands all over the place. The best known monolith, Shiprock, is nearby and visible from the summit of Beautiful. I have hiked this peak twice.

First Visit (October 2002): Adam Helman was spending a week in New Mexico working on the various county highpoints, so we agreed to synch our schedules so I could meet him for this peak. This would be an excellent excuse to put in the effort for this far-away summit. Due to a fluke in my teaching schedule, I had tuesdays open. I left work monday afternoon and drove the 265 miled to Gallup, New Mexico, meeting Adam at a Motel-6, where we crashed. We left very early the next morning, me stashing my truck at the local Wal-Mart, and sitting shotgun in Adam's new Toyota Tacoma. We drove north on US-666 (now US-491) for the 60-odd miles through the beautiful countryside. The sun rose as we neared our turn-off, BIA Route N-34, which leads a few miles into Sanostee, a small Navajo community of pre-fab homes.

Being off the main highways, no one comes to Sanostee as a tourist. It is a neat little town laid out in a grid with a church and basic shops, surounded by fields with sheep, cattle and crops. Past Sanostee, Road N-34 turns to dirt. We followed this road 4.7 miles to Road 5013, then northwest on 5013 for 5.5 miles to a junction marked by a stone column off to the right. The roads were getting rough and gaining considerable elevation, although we did not need 4-wheel drive yet.

At the stone column junction we went right onto a very rough road for 2.6 miles, going right at two junctions and left at an obvious third junction 1.8 miles in, parking in an open clearing due south of the peak itself, below its impressive cliff bulwarks. Adam got some valuable practice using 4-wheel drive on these last roads, including one stretch with an intimidating sidways lean to it.

The hike is short, but steep and strenuous. From where we parked, we hiked directly up the hill to the north, gaining 150 feet. From here, we had a commanding view of our objective. Beautiful Mountain is surrounded by a large, imposing band of cliffs about 200-300 feet high. The trick is finding a breach in them. From where we stood, we could see a steep slope leading up a break in the cliffs. Getting there meant bashing through brush, although as we got closer we came upon what was an obvious path. The path wormed its way up the steep slope in this breach, allowing us passage onto the upper plateau of Beautiful Mountain. We made note of some landmarks and Adam took a compass bearing.

From this point, the summit is sometimes visible through the trees. We started up the hillside, and the tree cover abated, the hill grew steeper and sometimes crumbly, and we hiked toward an obvious rocky knob which turned out to be the top. The top was rather small but very pronounced, with great views in all directions. To the east was the vast flatness of the high plateau, with the various rock monoliths poking up in places. The most famous of them all, Shiprock, was visible to our northeast, partially obscured by Beautiful Mountain's large and extensive plateau top.

It was surprisingly cool and windy on top, cool enough to force us to start moving quickly. The weather was unsettled. After 20 minutes we started our hike back to the truck. We had no problem at all navigating by reckoning through the trees back to our cliff-breach. Going down was a little tricky for me, as my left knee was starting to get tight as I'd hurt it about 6 weeks previous in a biking fall, and it still has some residual achiness to it. Nevertheless, the hike to the truck took about 40 minutes, for a total round trip of less than two hours. For the whole hike we covered about 2 miles and 950 feet of gross gain.

Back at Adam's truck, we relaxed briefly, then started the drive out. We had to pay close attention to the junctions, but at one point, we came to a Y-junction that confused us at first. We took the left fork down to a good road, eventually leading us to an intersection with another "good" road, but neither of us could be sure if it was our correct route out, so we turned back and went up the way we came back to the first Y-junction. Adam was getting kind of spooked driving down these roads so I took over.

From our junction, I drove down the other road, which seemed unfamiliar at first, until I saw some rock piles that I'd noticed coming up. So we went out that way and came out to an intersection, the one we were just at! So now we knew at least we were on the right path, so we hustled out to Road 5013, just as the weather turned gray and started to rain. We had no desire to be on these roads in wet conditions since they appeared to get real slick. I drove us out to Sanostee and pavement. There, Adam drove us another 20 miles to a gas station on the main highway where he bought a pint of ice cream. I then drove us back to Gallup while he ate the whole thing. The rain picked up so we were happy to be back on pavement and off the mountain, just in time. I picked up my truck in Gallup then spent the rest of the day driving back home, arriving about 4:30 p.m. My thanks to Adam for working his schedule to include me on this little adventure.

The next day I became an uncle again as my brother and his wife welcomed little Rawlins Surgent into the world. The following weekend I made the drive out to SoCal to meet my new nephew!

Second Visit (July 2010): This was the last peak of four that we (Scott Casterlin, Scott Peavy, Chris Gilsdorf and I) visited during a frenetic weekend of driving and hiking in the Four Corners region. Yesterday we had been successful on Pastora Peak in Arizona and on Abajo Peak in Utah. Late yesterday Scott P. and Chris hiked up Roof Butte in Arizona, while Scott C. and I passed on it. We then drove in the evening twilight up the dirt roads from Sanostee to the base of Beautiful Mountain. The route was the same as Adam and I took in 2002, there being no alternatives. We arrived in darkness and camped in a clearing south of the summit. The night was clear and still, and warm for 8,300 feet. I was eager to re-hike this peak. It's short but steep and fun, and I wanted better photographs for the record.

We started early this morning, walking up a lesser road that paralleled our "main" road. This lesser road is undriveable but leads into the forest, putting us close to the break in the cliffs. We covered this stretch in less than 30 minutes. Then, we hiked by sight down some easy draws and up onto the slopes below the big break. In time we found the use-path that worked its way up on top of the plateau, and from here, hiked by sight and instinct up the easier slopes to top out on Beautiful. Like before, the hike was short. It took us a shade over an hour, mainly since we started farther out than Adam and I did in 2002.

The summit is bare and rocky, overlooking the broad flat plateau-top of Beautiful Mountain. We had spectacular conditions and enjoyed the crystal-clear views of the surrounding mountains: Pastora, Ute, Abajo and even the La Sals to the north, Roof Butte to the west, vast high-desert rangeland and mesa to the east, canyons and cliffs to the south, and Shiprock partially obscured to our immediate east. We spent a good while up top, enjoying the views. Just amazing. I was happy to be up here again.

The hike down went well, the only variation being we cut south to the main road and hiked it back to our vehicle, the round-trip time being about 2.5 hours. After breaking camp and relaxing a bit, we started the drive out, which went well. In time we were back in Sanostee, our peaks done and now, just the long drive back home. Instead of driving through boring Gallup, we took a side route over Narbona Pass to Window Rock, where we toured the well-done memorial and the actual window rock, a broad arch in the sandstone. We had a lunch in town, then continued on our way home via Holbrook and Payson.

Our excitement for this stretch was being caught in stalled traffic on the AZ-260 east of Payson along the Mogollon Rim. The monsoon thunderstorms had been strong here and dropped a lot of rain, spawning a mudslide that knocked out some of the highway for a few hours. Lots of people were turning around, while we took "Control Road" that arcs north of Payson, catching Houston Mesa Road back into Payson, bypassing the traffic. This added maybe an hour to our journey. The rest of the drive was uneventful, and I was happy to be back home, and happier to have had a successful weekend with two new peaks for me, a cool repeat, and good times with cool partners. My thanks to Scott C., Scott P. and Chris ("honorary Scott").

(c) 2002, 2011 Scott Surgent. For entertainment purposes only. This report is not meant to replace maps, compass, gps and other common sense hiking/navigation items. Neither I nor the webhost can be held responsible for unfortunate situations that may arise based on these trip reports. Conditions (physical and legal) change over time! Some of these hikes are major mountaineering or backpacking endeavors that require skill, proper gear, proper fitness and general experience.